Season kicks-off with victory for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT!

Season kicks-off with victory for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT!

10/04/2016

The Belgian Audi Club Team WRT started the season in style, as Laurens Vanthoor and Frédéric Vervisch took a clean and undisputable victory in the Main race of the Blancpain Sprint Series opening round at Misano Adriatico. The Belgian pair could have won also the Qualifying race on Saturday: they were dominating the night race, but had to satisfy themselves with a final third position, as a full course yellow during the pit stops changed the physiognomy of the race. There were more satisfactions for the Belgian Audis R8 LMS in Italy: Dries Vanthoor (at his debut in GT racing) and Robin Frijns took an excellent 4^th in the first race, before suffering two drive-throughs on Sunday, Ide-Mies collected well-deserved points in the Main race and Leonard-Meadows conquered an excellent 2^nd position in the Silver cup on Sunday. Moreover, the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT mechanic crews performed outstanding pit stops in the Main race, trusting the entire podium of the Pit Stop Challenge!

Team Principal Vincent Vosse was a happy man at the end of the weekend: “We are off to an excellent start of our 2016 campaign”, he commented, “and this result has some added value, as the level this year is incredibly high. We had superb and closely-fought races, and we can be satisfied of the competitiveness of our cars and drivers. We won the Main race and could have won also the Qualifying one, but that didn’t happen and I congratulate the M-Sport Bentley because of their daring strategy. Everybody in the team did a great job during the entire weekend, and the ones that I would like to single-out this time are the mechanic crews. Pit stops are not an easy thing to perform when you have six cars on the track, and to have our guys taking the three first positions in the Pit Stop Challenge is simply great, something to be proud about!”

It was a good start of the weekend, with the Audis R8 LMS competitive on the damp track: free practice 1 ended with three Belgian Audi Club Team WRT cars in the top three (#33, 4 and 1 in

that order) and Vervisch-L.Vanthoor topped free practice 2. The good form was confirmed in qualifying, with the six cars of the team making it to Q3 and the top 20. Laurens Vanthoor took the pole in 1.33.262 on dry track, with Frijns-D.Vanthoor in P4, Ide-Mies in P10, Leonard-Meadows in P12, Rast-Stevens in P16 and Baptista-Albuquerque in P18.

The Qualifying race, held at night on Saturday, was to reveal itself frustrating for the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT and almost all the field except one car. Laurens Vanthoor took an excellent start and built a good advantage that Frédéric Vervisch defended well right after the start. On a drying track, the pair had chosen to start on wet tires, like the majority of contenders, pitting relatively early to put on slicks. What was going to decide the race was a full course yellow a couple of minutes before the closing of the pit window. This advantaged those not having pitted yet, mostly cars having started on slicks, and namely, the Bentley of Soucek-Soulet, who could clinched an unexpected win. For L.Vanthoor-Vervisch, the third position had a somehow bitter taste, while Frijns-D.Vanthoor took a good 4^th after a contact with one of the Mercedes. Mies-Ide took 13^th ahead of Rast-Stevens, the latter car having lost time in the first part of the race, because of the choice of slick tires, and being penalized with 30 seconds after the race because a yellow flag infringement. Meadows-Leonard also went for slicks but their race was ruined by a contact with a Nissan, while also Albuquerque-Baptista had to retire. Laurens Vanthoor summed up the team’s feelings after the race: “I came in for my pit-stop six or seven seconds in front, our stop was one of the fastest but, ultimately, we ended up 30 seconds behind after the full course yellow. So we lost almost 40 seconds and the win as a result of that. It is a lot of time and quite unlucky, we are obviously disappointed. Fortunately, it was only the Qualifying race and the pace shown gives us good hopes for Sunday….”

The sunshine was a welcome guest on Sunday for the Main race. The start saw a very good kick-off of Frédéric Vervisch, taking second in first lap and putting great pressure on the leader, Eng’s BMW, whom he would pass in lap 11. Dries Vanthoor also took a very good start in P4 but a slight contact in a braking zone with the Bentley ahead of him caused the rival car to spin a cost the young Belgian a drive-through. In his way back up through the field, Dries had another contact with the Boutsen Ginion BMW and that resulted in another drive-through, served by Frijns in the second stint, when the Dutchman was already fourth. The younger of the Vanthoors was clearly not very happy about the double sanction: “While I can understand the first decision, although there was nothing intentional”, he commented, “the second one seems odd, as it was Henkola touching me when rejoining the track after running wide.” The best pit stop of the race allowed Laurens Vanthoor to keep the lead and win, although “it wasn’t like cruising, because the Mercedes behind me had better pace”. Still, as Vervisch explained: “Today everything was perfect: the car, the pit stop, the two stints. It all went like planned.” Ide-Mies finished in the points, at a valuable P8, with Meadows-Leonard taking second in the Silver Cup and Albuquerque-Baptista finishing in P21, right ahead of Frijns-D.Vanthoor. The only car not finishing was the one of Rast-Stevens, which suffered a contact in the second stint while it had climbed up to an excellent P6 from its initial position at the back of the grid.

The Blancpain GT Series will continue its campaign in Italy, with the traditional first round of the Endurance Series at Monza taking place on 23-24 April.

Blancpain Sprint Series - Round 1

Misano Adriatico, Italy

8-10 April 2016

Qualifying Race results:

1. Soucek-Soulet (Bentley Continental) 33 laps
2. Eng-Sims (BMW M6) + 2s966
3. 3. L.Vanthoor-Vervisch (Audi R8 LMS) +32s176
4. 4. Frijns-D.Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS) +34s930
5. Baumann-Buhk (Marcedes AMG) +35s346

13. Mies-Ide (Audi R8 LMS) +1m31s347

14. Rast-Stevens (Audi R8 LMS) +1m39s648

DNF Baptista-Albuquerque (Audi R8 LMS) 25 laps (mechanical)

DNF Leonard-Meadows (Audi R8 LMS) 24 laps (race incident)

Main Race Race results:

1. Vervisch-L.Vanthoor (Audi R8 LMS) 38 laps

2. Buhk-Baumann (Mercedes AMG) + 1s626

3. Eng-Sims (BMW M6) +23s374

4. Bell-Parente (McLaren 650S) +30s611

5. Stippler-Salaquarda (Audi R8 LMS) +39s485

8. Mies-Ide (Audi R8 LMS) +53s542

18. Meadows-Leonard (Audi R8 LMS) +1m20s283 (2^nd Silver Cup)

21. Baptista-Albuquerque (Audi R8 LMS) +1m26s735

22. D.Vanthoor-Frijns (Audi R8 LMS) +1 lap

DNF Stevens-Rast (Audi R8 LMS) 22 laps (race incident)

Provisional Drivers’ standings (Pro Cup) after Round 1 of 5:

1. L.Vanthoor-Vervisch 30 points

2. Eng-Sims 21

3. Baumann-Buhk 21

4. Bell-Parente 12

5. Stippler-Salaquarda 10

9. Mies-Ide 4

10. D.Vanthoor-Frijns 3

Provisional Teams’ standings (Pro Cup) after Round 1 of 5:

1. Belgian Audi Club Team WRT 30 points

2. HTP Motorsports 21

3. Rowe Racing 21

4. Garage59 12

5. Bentley Team M-Sport, ISR 10